Installation of Windows Home Server 2011 Connector Fails
I came across a problem recently on my home network. A needed to reconnect a PC (Windows XP) back to a Windows Home Server 2011. I uninstalled the WHS2011 Connector, but when i tried to re-install it, i got the usual (and very generic) message
WHS2011 Connector installation has encountered an error . . .
I started to look around, and found 2 messages in the event log:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: .NET Runtime 4.0 Error Reporting
Event Category: None
Event ID: 5000
Date: 15/05/2012
Time: 07:31:12
User: N/A
Computer: COMPAQD330-PC
Description:
EventType clr20r3, P1 clientdeploy.exe, P2 6.1.8800.16395, P3 4f0f3085, P4 system.configuration, P5 4.0.0.0, P6 4ba1e04b, P7 274, P8 28, P9 system.typeinitialization, P10 NIL.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Event Type: Error
Event Source: .NET Runtime
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1026
Date: 15/05/2012
Time: 07:31:21
User: N/A
Computer: COMPAQD330-PC
Description:
Application: ClientDeploy.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.TypeInitializationException
Stack:
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.ProductInfo.get_ImageProofBinDir()
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.ProductInfo.get_BinDir()
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.Support.ResolveAssembliesFromProductBinDir()
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.ClientSetup.ClientDeploy.Program.Main()
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Application: ClientDeploy.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.TypeInitializationException
Stack:
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.ProductInfo.get_ImageProofBinDir()
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.ProductInfo.get_BinDir()
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.Common.Support.ResolveAssembliesFromProductBinDir()
at Microsoft.WindowsServerSolutions.ClientSetup.ClientDeploy.Program.Main()
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
After some research, i found a suggestion to log in to the server and remove the computer from the server. Surely, when i logged in, the computer was still listed on the server’s list of computers. I removed the computer from the list and attempted to re-install the WHS2011 Connector again.
Great was my dissappointment to see the installer to fail again. Not sure where the idea came from, but i thought “Hey, the installer informs about DotNet 4 requirement. Why not try uninstalling it”. So i went ahead and opened the Add-Remove Programs and removed from the list all items related to DotNet 4. Than i tried to run the Connector installer again, and to my surprise, this time it worked perfectly. Sure as hell, it took a while, obviously due to DotNet4 that had to be re-installed, but the result was a computer that could talk to my Windows Home Server 2011 again.